I like the plumbing. Go many places in the world, and you better drink bottled water.

I like the relative safety I feel when traveling to different cities. When I was in Guatemala, I got chastised for walking a few blocks from the grocery store. I did notice that all the houses had barbed wire on their fences.

I like the choice in food here. You can get almost any kind, from anywhere. When I was in Belize, everything tasted like tomato sauce.

Choice of beer too. So many to choose from.

Carpets, I didn't notice things like carpets and wood chairs so much until I came back from some vacations. You fly back in to the States and it's like Wow! They have carpets on the floors, and real solid feeling chairs to sit in. Not plastic patio chairs or wooden benches without backs to them.
Some chairs even have padding here.

Now... after some thought, and I just finished my icecream cone, I also, like about the USA:

1. American men
2. Ernest Hemingway
3. Benjamin Franklin
4. Philly and its history
5. The deep south, love Al. & the people
6. The oceans and everything in them
7. Our libraries
8. Our public educational system and its potential for greatness!
9. The advanced studies done for cures and treatments for all diseases!
0. Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (alternate in a pitch: McDonalds Ice Cream Cone)
... and, a big sloppy with everything on it, Chili Dog...from Chili's.

They are all great things about America. You just haven't lived here long enough or experienced enough to know the difference.

The history in Philly is fantastic! Every corner you take is history, it is steeped in it. And, if you are a history buff, as I am, you would love it. But, warn you, this is American history... Valley Forge is beautiful, while running in the mornings while running past our little log cabins which the Revolutionary soldiers lived, I actually had deer running by my side. I ran past a small beautiful chapel which on the alters has glass and metal, statues of our soldiers, and stained glass which takes your breath away. I especially liked, stopping for a breath and looking up at the window of George Washington's house, where a candle stays lit all the time, and if you look closely, enough you can see the desk in between the ruffled curtains where he sat and wrote at.

Philly is amazing. I lived there many a year and wrote for a paper while enjoying the entire city.

Al. is a must. I climbed through vines and bushes to find my way into a little-known place where slaves are buried. I read each and every stone, and found alot out about those buried there, and did pieces on it. I got to love the south, the people, the culture, the food, ( i learned to make blackened fish) and swimming until, Oct was an especially great delight. I loved the climate.

How can anyone describe, The Old Man and the Sea, other than great? I can read that book a million times and still be in awe. What a talent...

Ben Franklin owns Philly. You can ride a carriage through the city in his name, on Arch Street, you can toss pennies on his grave, or see the frame of the house he never finished. Yes, he was a womanizer, but what man isn't ! While there, make sure you eat at The Tavern on the Square, it was there that after the signing of the Declaration of Independence they had dinner and then, on the roof they partied! The servers are dressed in costume period clothing, the food is horrible because it is actual food from that period and if you believe in ghosts... I got pictures of a waiter standing behind the table my husband and kids are sitting and behind and in front and on the sides of them all, are orbs! One could had been Jeffeson, eh...

You are not in our educational system which only makes sense for one to think that you are clueless about the potential of it all! We have the most fantastic teachers, the most wonderful classes to be offered and as with all, in time, because of its size, more funding needed, it will be great in time!

If you have not visited our libraries you need to. Get a library card! Go see what most libraries offer, it is not just books. We have after school tutoring where a kid can call and get help in math ( I volunteer with math) science, english, all subjects. The range of movies, CD's, free classes, is staggering. The best kept secret ... Our libraries are great, you can make friends, and consider yourself family. It is amazing.

Ah, the oceans. My love. I could write sonnets on the passion I feel for it. I have a book which is going to be published on what else, the ocean. I love the water. I had an octopus, a Vulgaria, which of course we named, and named, Otto. He was getting so big, and we kept changing his tank size and thought it was big enough, but not so, we lost Otto. He lived 5 years, long for in captivity.

Along with lion fish, groupers, stars, aneobos, clowns, all tangs... The only thing which is better than under the water, is what is way up in the sky. The planets. The moon, the stars...but, then, the sky is really part of the entire world, is it not.

Our studies done at our Universities, and hospitals, Hopkins, etc, succeeds that of anyone in the world. Period.

And in my book, there is nothing better for dinner, than ice cream and a chili dog with everything on it from Chilli's.